by Eva C. Keuls (1993)
At once daring and authoritative, this book offers a profusely illustrated history of sexual politics in ancient Athens. The phallus was pictured everywhere in ancient Athens: painted on vases, sculpted in marble, held aloft in gigantic form in public processions, and shown in stage comedies. This obsession with the phallus dominated almost every aspect of public life, influencing law, myth, and customs, affecting family life, the status of women, even foreign policy. This is the first book to draw together all the elements that made up the "reign of the phallus"--men's blatant claim to general dominance, the myths of rape and conquest of women, and the reduction of sex to a game of dominance and submission, both of women by men and of men by men. In her elegant and lucid text Eva Keuls not only examines the ideology and practices that underlay the reign of the phallus, but also uncovers an intense counter-movement--the earliest expressions of feminism and antimilitarism. -- Publisher description (1993 ed.).
G. J. Barker-Benfield
"With an updated introduction, the revolutionary book that changed our understanding of gender relations in America is now back in print. Controversial and considered ahead of its time, The Horrors of the Half-Known Life is a startling portrait of male attitudes toward masculinity, women, and sexuality in nineteenth-century America."--BOOK JACKET.
Jane Davison and Lesley Davison
American women's relationship with their homes has always been central to their lives. In 1980 Jane Davison published a book that so brilliantly illuminated this relationship and how it had changed in this century that it immediately became a classic. That superb, timeless work is presented here in a new edition containing more than seventy-five remarkable photographs and a chapter by Lesley Davison that brings into the 1990s the lively, insightful exploration her mother began. Drawing on such diverse and entertaining sources as family diaries, women's magazines, and popular literature, the Davisons move from the specific to the general, from personal reflection to architectural philosophy to sociological analysis, with remarkable grace. At the turn of the century, when Jane Davison's grandmother was a young bride, a middle-class woman ruled proudly over her suburban house. Overseeing a host of children and servants, she strove to make her home a spiritual sanctuary for her family. In the thirties and forties, Davison's mother reigned over a diminished, more lonely empire. The scientific revolution of the twenties had swept into the home, innumerable appliances had taken the place of servants, and the housewife tried now to be an efficient manager. Despite these changes, home was still "a woman's happy duty." But as a housewife herself in the sixties and seventies, Jane Davison, like many women, questioned - and then rejected - the close identification of self with house. Lesley Davison examines the surprising changes in what members of a fourth generation of women think and feel about their homes. Complemented by a rich array of photographs that reflect the changing ideals and realities of the housewife's life, this is a masterful study of the American dream of the single-family home and the economic, social, and psychological impact it has had on women.
Janet Shaw
Still grieving over the death of her hero, and missing her stolen horse and kidnapped younger sister, Kaya tries to earn the trust of a lone and starving dog who is about to have puppies. Includes historical notes on Nez Percé children.
Marilyn French
William Shakespeare regarded men and women quite differently. In his early plays, the so-called masculine qualities of prowess, bravery, and individualism were accorded more respect than "feminine" attributes of mercy, compassion, and intuitiveness. Yet, in his later plays, there is evidence of a reversal in Shakespeare's attitudes, a new fear of the power of the masculine principle and new admiration for the feminine. Marilyn French offers a feminist perspective on each of Shakespeare's plays. More than a brilliantly original literary interpretation, this fascinating volume provides penetrating insight into attitudes toward men, women, love, and power in Western culture. - Publisher.